Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical three-stage Clos-network packet switch includes three stages of switch modules assembled to create a packet switch capable of having a large number of ports. These three stages typically include input modules, central modules and output modules. Generally, the more input, central and output modules included in a three-stage Clos-network packet switch, the more ports the switch can support. As a result of an ability to support a variable amount of ports, a three-stage Clos-network packet switch architecture can be considered a scalable switch architecture. Companies that manage communication networks such as Internet service providers or telecommunication service providers may find the scalability of three-stage Clos-network packet switch architectures as an attractive attribute. However, configuring routes to forward data through a three-stage Clos-network packet switch that has been scaled to include a large number of ports can be a complex and slow process.